Harry Potter and the Leaders and Best
by JubeeDancer
Summary: Taking place in the middle of Book 7, Harry, Ron and Hermione find themselves in unfamiliar territory: college. Dumbledore has led them to U Mich in their fight against Voldemort where they must battle dorm food, term papers, frat parties, and RAs.
1. Chapter 1

The early fall sun blazed above, reminding Adelaide why fall was her favorite season as she ran down the hill past Markley. She was grateful it was Saturday and that it was a football game day which meant that the streets of Ann Arbor and the halls of U of M were quiet, as everyone and their mother were either at the stadium or inside watching the game. She had the Arb all to herself. Her feet began hitting the pavement to the beat of the music coming from her ear buds as they switched from hitting pavement to hitting the dirt paths of the Arboretum.

As Adelaide ran, she barely even noticed the music. Her mind was filled with everything. She could hardly believe they were already two and a half weeks into her last fall semester ever, assuming she didn't need to go to grad school which was looking like a better option every day. The semester was looking great for her though, her residents were really nice and fun to hang out with, her classes didn't seem all too difficult with the exception of Econ and she had just gotten her dream role in a musical, which was a huge feat. The University's musical theatre department is one of the top in the country and Adelaide isn't even in the musical theatre department and she still got the lead role. It is completely unheard of! She wouldn't complain though, _42__nd__ Street_ is her favorite musical and she's never had a lead before but Peggy Sawyer is her dream role. It was going to be a busy semester with that, her 19 credit hours, and her two jobs – the ticket office and being a resident advisor – she wasn't sure she is gonna be able to fit in everything she wants to do before she leaves. There's a long list. She'll make it work though; she always manages somehow.

Adelaide turned down one of her "hidden paths". It wasn't really a hidden path but it was definitely a path less taken. She liked to call it off roading. It made her feel like she was in the country and that nothing else was happening or mattered. It made her feel almost like time stopped, or more like she existed outside of time or apart from it. Here, it didn't matter that she had hundreds of pages she's supposed to read for class or a community building activity (CBA) to plan for her hall; it was just her and nature. It was times when she was running that she most felt the power of God or whatever you want to believe in. The good Catholic girl in her made it to church every Sunday morning but that was only a formality. It was out in natural beauty, running when she felt mostly the presence. She felt it when she wasn't running too but she was frequently going on a run.

As she was rounding a bend in the path, and coming closer to the end of her run, she started returning to reality. Adelaide started making a mental list of all of the things she needed to get done and trying to prioritize them as she run past the fence separating the Arb from the graveyard. It didn't even register with her anymore that the graveyard existed or that it was kind of creepy. It had become just a part of the scenery like any other beautiful tree or flower bush. Yet she got a prickly feeling on the back of her neck like she was being watched. She turned her head but there was no one around. The alarm on her watch started beeping and she sped up in the direction of the entrance. Time to get back to the real world, and call her mom.

***

"I'm slipping into the lava. Trying to keep from going under…" Adelaide sang as loudly as she could, which is loud. She wasn't ashamed of the fact that she was almost 21 and but listened to the Jonas Brothers and watched the Disney Channel and had Disney Princess everything. But she did snap her mouth shut when she heard the knock at her door.

"Addie!" Yelled a female voice.

"I'm coming. Imma coming." Adelaide replied and ran to the door. "Geez impatient."

"Sorry, I didn't know if you could hear me." Kayla said, waltzing into the room.

"I could, I just wanted to, you know, put my shirt on first."

"That's acceptable I guess. Have you talked to the new guy yet?" She asked, pulling her light blonde hair into a pony tail.

"No. I knocked on his door when I got back from my run but he wasn't there. Or he didn't answer. Either way, no dice."

"Hm…well I hope he's not a weirdo or anything. And that he doesn't just stay in his room or go out with other friends all the time. It feels like the hall is a really good vibe going on this year." Kayla had lived on Adelaide's hall last year as well and they became best friends. The residents last year were rather independent and usually hung out with friends in other places, making their hall really quiet and boring. Kayla should have been on Res Staff with Addy this year, but for who knows what reason they didn't pick her.

"Yeah I know! I'm jazzed."

"Jazzed?"

"Shut up. I like it!" Addy replied defensively. She liked to use random words sometimes.

"Dork. What are you doing?"

"Right now? Talking to you and then you know finishing getting dressed and stuff." Addy replied.

"And then?"

"Then going to the dollar movie with Morgan." Addy replied. They had planned to see the Hannah Montana movie when it got to the dollar movie theater, since they were college kids who shouldn't really want to see it.

"Oh, kay. I was gonna invite you home for dinner." Kayla's family lives about ten to fifteen minutes away and frequently tells Kayla to bring friends home for dinner and to hang out.

"Aw no, next time! I love your family."

"Okay, well I'm gonna go then." Kayla said.

"Tell the fam I say hey." Addy said as Kayla walked out the door and shut it behind her. Addy finished getting ready. Grabbing her purse she headed out the door, almost locking herself out but catching the door at the last second when she realized she'd forgotten – really it happened at least once a week. When she came back out she saw a male she didn't recognize walking down the hall. He had messy black hair and he was walking toward the room of the new resident. Adelaide thought for a minute how to non-creepily get his attention and say hi. She decided just to go for it though and glided down the hall to catch him just as he was putting his card into the lock.

"Um…Harry?" She said meekly. He turned to look at her and his green eyes caught her right away, strikingly old-before-their-time behind his glasses.

"Er, yeah." He replied, utterly confused.

"Hi, I'm Adelaide." She replied, giving her small little wave. It was kinda an awkward thing but she always did it. She was actually always kinda a little awkward. "I'm your RA."

"RA?" He repeated quixotically.

"Resident Advisor. I live in the middle of the hall, 5560." She replied, surprised that he didn't know what an RA was as her sheet said he was 20 so he should be at least a sophomore. "I just wanted to say hello and welcome to 5th Palmer. If you need anything feel free to knock on my door. I'm pretty busy though so if I'm ever not there, come back later or leave me a note or facebook me or email me or text me or whatever. But I'm always happy to help. Are you new to U of M?"

"Er…yeah. I just transferred." Harry replied.

"Cool." Adelaide said. It was a little awkward and she could tell that he didn't want to really talk. She should really be on her way anyway. "Okay well, I'm heading out but like I said welcome, I'm here to help or to hang out, 5560 – stop by anytime. And –" she caught sight of a shape on his forehead. "Is that a lightning bolt?"

"What?" Harry reached up instinctively and touched his scar. "Oh, yeah. It's a scar."

"Cool." Addy responded. She was now officially creeping out her resident which is not a good way to start off the year. "Well, see ya later. It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too." Harry replied. Addy disappeared down the hall and out the steps, glad to have at least made initial contact with her new resident. Just as she disappeared, Hermione and Ron reached Harry's room.

"Who was that?" Ron asked as the two came in and shut the door behind them.

"My RA. Do you guys have one?" Harry replied. The whole American university thing was very new.

"Yeah mate but mine's not nearly as cute as yours." Ron said. "_Victoria _– she got brassed off when I called her Vicky - gave me this lecture about respecting women and how she's really busy and doesn't have time to put up with trouble on the hall. I don't think she likes me very much."

"Mine was high. I'm fairly sure at least. He was really weird. Anyway, an RA is like a perfect or head boy and girl. They live in the dorm for free and make sure everyone is going okay and follows rules." Hermione piped in.

"What do you mean he was high? How do you know that?" Ron asked.

"I read about it before we got here Ron. We need to fit in and look like the normal American college kids, who would all know that. Did you not read the packets I gave you two on what to do and what not to do here?!" Hermione responded exasperatedly.

"What are we doing here anyway? I don't see how the University of Michigan is gonna help us find the last Horcrux." Ron scoffed.

"It's all we've got isn't it?" Hermione retorted. "Dumbledore left me the book on the University of Michigan and the book of children's stories for something and we've tried everything else."

Harry sat and listened to the two bickering but remained silent. He too wondered if they had made the right choice in coming here. It had been two years since Dumbledore had died and Voldemort had risen to power. They successfully destroyed all but two of the horcruxes, if Dumbledore was right about the number and yet they were stumped. They knew Nagini was one, however they didn't want to attempt getting rid of her until all the others had been taken care of. There was the ring, the goblet, the diary, the diadem, the locket – all destroyed. Just Nagini and one other thing left to destroy but what it was they still didn't know. Harry couldn't understand what the University of Michigan had to do with anything in the wizarding world at all and felt that perhaps Dumbledore had gone insane. How could a muggle university be housing a magical object serving as home to a piece of Voldemort's soul? It just didn't make sense. The one good thing about being here was the presence of food and bathrooms and beds and the lack of a need to hide. People here didn't know who he was nor would the Death Eaters be looking here for him. And right now, he was too tired to argue about it. All he wanted was to enjoy the nice, warm, dry, comfort of his own bed.

****

Author's Note: I DON'T OWN THE HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS OR STORYLINE CLEARLY! You should know that the wonderful and talented JK Rowling does. Anywho, this story takes place in the middle-ish of Book 7 (as you gathered) but I needed to change their ages a bit to fudge it and change a couple of things. You'll see what's going on eventually. Also, I'm real bad a British dialogue. This is all.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been an entire week since Adelaide had first met her new resident and she hadn't seen him since; not going to the bathroom, not leaving for class, not in class but that wasn't expected at such a large school, not in the cafeteria. It was like he didn't exist anymore. I guess if she thought back to last year, she had a few residents like that so she shouldn't think about it all that much. But there was something strange about the boy with the lightning scar. Not strange I guess. Not like keep-my-eye-out-for-him strange. Different maybe? Unique? Intriguing? She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but she really wanted to talk to him, get to know him. Most of the time she didn't force herself on residents, letting them come to her if they really wanted to be social and whatnot but this was different. She felt something in her chest tighten anytime she thought she might get that chance. Not that she was thinking about it all the time, she had her plate full and she was determined to have a great last year but every now and then he crept into her head.

She forgot about the mysterious Brit as she entered the rehearsal room. They were dancing today so Addy was there early to stretch and clear her mind. It was only going to be her and her leading man anyway. She could tell that Saturday morning rehearsal was going to become her favorite.

Hours later, Harry was walking through the Walgreen Drama Center. It is on what is called North Campus, a separate part of the University's campus that could only really be reached by car/bus. He really had no business here except to explore. He couldn't stand to spend another minute in a library with Ron and Hermione. It seemed hopeless. Why would there be a Horcrux here, in the muggle world? Voldemort loathes everything to do with muggles. It's against all he stands for so how could anything here be related?

As Harry continued down the stark white hallway, he heard beautiful music coming from one of the rooms. The door was open and he looked in. It was almost as drawing to him as the phoenix song. There was a girl inside who looked familiar. Brown, sunkist hair swirled around her as she leapt and spun her way around the room, captivating Harry with her graceful moves and hypnotizing him with her angelic humming. She didn't notice him once the dance was finished and began singing as she gathered her things, preparing to leave.

When she turned to face Harry, a couple of things happened. First, his scar felt _funny_. It wasn't searing hot pain, it was closer to the prickling feeling he'd first started experiencing back in his first year. But it was more pleasant. Second, he recognized her but couldn't remember her name. It was Harry's RA. He froze, unsure what to do knowing he should be here.

"Harry?" Adelaide asked, her heart beating at lightning speed, with just a small flutter mixed in. She still got nervous anytime people caught her singing or dancing. On top of that, she didn't know this kid at all.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Harry started saying.

"That's okay, I should get back anyway." Adelaide replied. She hurriedly threw her stuff into her bag. "So, what are you doing on North Campus?"

"I, uh, was just taking a look around." Harry replied trying to come with something to say. "My friend Hermione told me about this, er, place to study so…"

"The Dude, yeah I have a couple of friends who like to treck up here to study in the peace and quiet. It's over thataway." Adelaide said stepping out of the dark entrance hall to the studio and pointing through the glass wall of windows.

"Yeah, I walked through it. I was just looking around."

"Okay, well, welcome to the Walgreen. I spend a lot of time here." Adelaide replied, standing awkwardly. She hadn't quite gotten her breath to calm down yet.

"It's, er, nice." Harry replied, feeling more awkward then he had with Cho Chang.

"You don't have to lie. It's kind of hideous…which is funny since it's a creative building. I mean, it houses a creative department. You'd think it'd be pretty and not stark white." Addy laughed a little.

"Yeah," was the only response Harry could think of. His mind was a little bit focused on his scar.

"So, where are you headed right now?" Adelaide asked, looking at her watch.

"I was gonna poke around a bit more, see what's up here." Harry replied.

"Okay, I'd love to stay and give you a tour," Adelaide started saying and thought she could see a bit of a hesitant look on Harry's face, "but my mom is coming into town for a bit and she's most likely sitting impatiently out front in her car. If you wanted a ride back, though, she would absolutely swing by Lloyd and drop you off."

"Er, no thanks. I think I wanna stick around a bit more." Harry heard his voice say although there was something in him that really wanted to go with her.

"Okay sure. Well, have fun!" Adelaide said as she started walking down the hallway toward the main lobby area. She abruptly turned and yelled down while walking backwards, "I don't know if you know or not but the South Commuter bus which picks up in front of Pierpont right there," she said pointing to a building through the windows, "drops you off right in front of Lloyd."

"Thanks." Harry called. He watched Adelaide walk down the long hallway and round the corner. Through the multiple windows he saw her get into the passenger seat of a red car and remained still as the car drove away, one hand absentmindedly touching his scar. He made his way back to where he had left Hermione and Ron. Harry decided that telling Hermione and Ron about his scar would cause huge problems and it would be better to keep it to himself. They had enough to worry about trying to figure out the last Horcrux and its connection to this muggle university. The longer they were away from England and the magical world, the more desperate they grew. Without any way of knowing what was happening, they didn't know how many of their family and friends might have been killed or how much power Voldemort had managed to get for himself. For all they knew, they'd go back to a world under completely Death Eater control that wasn't looking for any saving. It was also strange to Harry that Voldemort hadn't sought international power, unless the wizard world here was just so far undercover that he didn't know about it. They had not encountered anything in their research so far to suggest any magical heritage to the university or even any magical presence on campus. Harry began to harbor the silly idea that maybe there weren't American witches and wizards. Maybe it was stuck in Europe only.

By the time Harry reached the study room that the three of them had sequestered for themselves, he had fully decided not to mention anything about even seeing Adelaide to either of his friends. It was simply unimportant. He knew that Hermione would just be angry that Harry was still connected to Voldemort and that he wondered off so far. Ron would spend way too much time thinking and pondering out loud which just make Hermione even more angry. When he opened the door, he was nearly attacked by a bushy-brown haired creature.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione asked. Harry was internally impressed with her ability to sound concerned, angry and happy all at once.

"I went to get some food and some air. It's a little stuffy in here, not all of us are used to holing up with books for days without end." Harry said, trying to muffle the sounds of his tummy with his arm. If she heard the growl, she would know he was lying.

"Harry, we need to figure this out! And this place isn't like Hogwarts which has a rich history to begin with, but its so spread out and so varied. And we don't know what we're looking for even." Hermione began. It was the same thing she said anytime anyone sounded tired or disgruntled that they were spending so much time and effort on their research.

"What do we know again?" Ron asked, sensing danger. He asked this frequently whenever he felt tensions rise or that they were feeling hopeless.

"Well, Dumbledore left the book of children's tales and the book on the University of Michigan. As we couldn't figure out the children's tales we came here. He circled the housing section so we all "enrolled" as transfer students and each got into different dorms in different areas of the campus to see what we could find. But so far nothing. I just don't understand! There is nothing linking any of the people who the dorms are named after with anything remotely magical." Hermione replied, going back to her notes and putting her head inbetween her hands.

"Could the Horcrux just be hidden in a dorm?" Harry replied.

"How are we going to be able to find it when there are over 17 different dormoritory buildings in different areas of campus that are each at least three floors. And we don't know what we're looking for!" Hermione retorted.

"Maybe this is part of Voldemort's past?" Ron hypothesized. "Maybe he spent time here when he was younger."

"Doing what?" Hermione asked. "Going to frat parties? He doesn't strike me as the type."

"I don't know Hermione!" Ron said, getting frustrated. "Maybe Dumbledore wanted us to get out of England, to save us. Maybe he thought we would fail so he sent us on a wild goose chase."

"Maybe Dumbledore didn't give us the book after all. Maybe it was Scrimgeour who gave it to us to get us out of the way." Hermione said.

"No, that's Dumbledore's handwriting, I'm sure of it." Harry replied. He had considered that briefly as well.

"Maybe Dumbledore was telling us to get out the magical world forever and get a normal education. Leave it all behind us." Harry snapped.

"Harry –" Hermione said sympathetically. She got up from the table and went to lay a comforting hand on his shoulder but he moved away.

"All I'm saying is that we can't know why Dumbledore sent us here because he's dead. I wish he wasn't but he is. It's pointless for us to try to get into his head because we can't. We just need to stop trying to think like Dumbledore and start trying to think like us."

The room was filled with silent energy. The trio were beyond words, they'd been through so much together already. Hermione and Ron shared a look that spoke novels and Harry just stared. There was definitely a lot to be said for the romance between his two best friends but it certainly left him feeling more alone than ever.

"Harry – " Hermione started to say but stopped. She wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm gonna go, think things through for a while." He was out the door without another word and walking down a hall. He didn't know which direction and he didn't know where he was going but he couldn't sit there anymore. He was itching to get moving, they were waiting too long.

The afternoon sun shone brightly as Harry exploded out of the Duderstadt building walking toward the bus stop Adelaide had pointed toward. He decided he wanted to walk to the dormitory to think about things, things which didn't make sense. He cut across a field and into a patch of trees that seemed to go forever. _What was Dumbledore thinking leaving us such obscure clues? He overestimated our intelligence if he thought these clues would mean anything to us. But maybe they were onto something back there. _A thought occurred to Harry as he walked. _What if he had wanted us to take classes here? It is a university, maybe there's something we're missing._ By the time Harry got to his room, he had decided that it would be best to try to get to a few classes tomorrow and he knew exactly which ones he was going to attend.


End file.
